THE MT VOID
02/14/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 33, Whole Number 2367
Co-Editor: Mark Leeper,
mleeper@optonline.netCo-Editor: Evelyn Leeper,
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Topics:
Mini Reviews, Part 4 (WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOY WAR,
LES MISERABLES (2018)) (film reviews
by Mark R. Leeper and Evelyn C. Leeper)
Asteroid "Mining" (comments by Gregory Frederick)
MUNCHHAUSEN (letters of comment by Paul Dormer
and Gary McGath)
This Week's Reading (ONE, TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE)
(book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
===================================================================
TOPIC: Mini Reviews, Part 4 (film reviews by Mark R. Leeper and
Evelyn C. Leeper)
Two mini-series:
WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOY WAR (2024): WYATT EARP AND THE COWBOY
WAR is a Netflix mini-series that goes into far more detail than
most viewers of TOMBSTONE or WYATT EARP will want, but if you're a
hard-core Western fan who has watched all the films about the
gunfight at the O.K. Corral (even the obscure ones like FRONTIER
MARSHAL and DOC), you won't want to miss this. [-ecl]
Released streaming 21 August 2024.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33038128/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/wyatt_earp_and_the_cowboy_war>
LES MISERABLES (2018): We just watched the 2018 Masterpiece
Theater production of LES MISERABLES, and I was struck by how the
scene of Jean Valjean traveling through the sewers of Paris is
reminiscent of Andy Dufresne's journey through the sewer pipe in
THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, particularly since they both emerge into
rain. This is not an uncommon trope, and supposedly represents
baptism and rebirth, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see
it, but I suspect Victor Hugo was the first to use it in
literature, and from there it made its way onto the screen. [-ecl]
Released streaming 14 April 2019.
Film Credits:
<
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5900600/reference>
What others are saying:
<
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/les_miserables>
===================================================================
TOPIC: Asteroid "Mining" (comments by Gregory Frederick)
Cool video summarizing the results of a NASA mission to an
asteroid where they collected samples of material there and brought
them back to Earth to study.
<
https://youtube.com/shorts/jDr7II5XJ5Q?si=CpUH1IVyen993NfR>
[-gf]
===================================================================
TOPIC: MUNCHHAUSEN (letters of comment by Paul Dormer and Gary
McGath)
In response to Mark and Evelyn's comments on MUNCHHAUSEN in their
review of HITLER'S HOLLYWOOD in the 02/07/25 issue of the MT VOID,
Paul Dormer writes:
MUNCHHAUSEN turned up on the BBC about the time the Terry Gilliam
version came out. I bought it on DVD a while after. A great
opening sequence which completely had me fooled. [-pd]
Gary McGath writes:
[Evelyn/Mark write,] "It discusses, for example, how the use of
various optical tricks and techniques promoted the idea pf
illusions, of a permeable border between reality and unreality, of
the unsureness of one's own perceptions." [-ecl/mrl]
There was a lot of that in pre-Nazi German cinema as well. THE
CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI is the most obvious example.
The script for MUNCHHAUSEN was written by Erich Kaestner under a
pseudonym. Kaestner's writing was banned under the Nazis. I
don't know why exactly, but in [his] kids' novel EMIL AND THE
DETECTIVES, one of the sympathetic characters says, "Bist du
meschuggah?" suggesting the character is Jewish.
[Evelyn/Mark write,] "Of these films, and of the Third Reich in
general, Hannah Arendt said, 'What convinces masses are not facts,
not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the
illusion.'" [-ecl/mrl]
Yes, and it's not just "masses" but even smart people who are
susceptible to repetition of claims. [-gmg]
Paul Dormer adds:
It's also said that the film was commissioned by Goebbels, not
only the propaganda minister but also the head of the UFA studios,
for its 25th anniversary. Kaestner and the director Josef von
Baky decided on Munchhausen as he was an even bigger liar than
Goebbels. [-pd]
===================================================================
TOPIC: This Week's Reading (book comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
I've been bingeing the Poirot "Mystery" series lately, and have
only just now noticed a giant plot hole in one of the stories, and
it's present in the original novel as well. The novel is ONE,
TWO, BUCKLE MY SHOE by Agatha Christie (William Morrow, ISBN
978-0-062-07377-8), and here come SPOILERS.
SPOILERS
In the novel, and in all adaptations, the first murder being
investigated is clearly arranged ahead of time with great
planning. The set-up to make Blunt look like the intended victim
means Carter has to be hired *before* that murder, and it means
the telegram has to be sent probably the day before. But it also
means that the murderer has to arrange that three people have
consecutive dentist appointments on the day, one of whom is not an
established patient, and that a fourth person is also a patient of
that dentist. And the murderer has no control over the new
patient's appointment, which is an emergency one.
We also have the classic Christie tropes of the false target and
the mis-identified corpse.
END SPOILERS
I like the basic idea behind the story, and it is one of my
favorites, but it still has this major plot hole. [-ecl]
===================================================================
Mark Leeper
mleeper@optonline.net If we attend continually and promptly to the little that
we can do, we shall ere long be surprised to find how
little remains that we cannot do.
--Samuel Butler
MT VOID, 02/14/25 -- Vol. 43, No. 33, Whole Number 2367